Henry V

Summary

Henry V follows the young King Henry, once the tavern-haunting Prince Hal, as he leads England to war with France and wins the battle of Agincourt in 1415. A Chorus opens each act, asking the audience to let their imaginations fill the small wooden theatre with the vasty fields of France. In Act I the Archbishop of Canterbury argues that Henry has a lawful claim to the French crown through his great-grandmother, and Henry, asking solemnly for the truth since lives will be spent on it, resolves on war; the Dauphin's insulting gift of tennis balls hardens him. Before sailing he unmasks three noblemen, Cambridge, Scroop and Grey, who have taken French gold to kill him, and sends them to execution; at the same time the Hostess reports the death of his old companion Falstaff, whose heart, his friends say, the king has broken. In France Henry rallies his troops at the breach of Harfleur, then threatens the governor with the horrors of a sack until the town yields. The French princess Katherine takes a comic English lesson, while Henry's army, weakened by sickness, marches toward Calais and his old friend Bardolph is hanged for robbing a church. The night before Agincourt, Henry borrows a cloak and walks among his soldiers; the common soldier Williams tells him that if the cause is not good the king has a heavy reckoning to make for those who die. Alone, Henry reflects on the burden of kingship and the emptiness of ceremony, and prays that God will not remember his father's usurpation. In the morning, outnumbered by the French, he answers the wish for more men with the St. Crispin's Day speech about a band of brothers. After the French kill the boys guarding the baggage, he orders the prisoners killed; then the French herald concedes the field, and Henry orders the Non nobis and Te Deum sung, giving the victory to God. Fluellen, the Welsh captain, settles accounts with the braggart Pistol by making him eat a leek. In Act V the Duke of Burgundy describes France ruined by war, Henry woos Katherine in plain soldier's speech, and the peace is sealed by their marriage. The Epilogue reminds the audience that Henry lived only a short time and that his son lost France.

Plot or Argument

• Prologue and Act I: The claim

  The Chorus invokes a Muse of fire; the bishops justify Henry's claim by the Salic law; the Dauphin's tennis balls provoke the king's resolve.

• Act II: Traitors and a death

  Henry exposes the Southampton conspirators; Falstaff dies offstage in the Hostess's tavern; the French court debates the threat.

• Act III: Harfleur to the march

  Henry leads the assault at the breach and takes Harfleur; Katherine learns English; Bardolph is hanged and the sick army marches on.

• Act IV: Agincourt

  Henry walks disguised among his soldiers, broods on ceremony and prays; he gives the St. Crispin's Day speech, orders prisoners killed after the attack on the boys, and gives God the victory.

• Act V and Epilogue: Peace

  Fluellen makes Pistol eat a leek; Burgundy pleads for peace; Henry woos Katherine; the Epilogue foretells the loss of France under Henry VI.

Characters

• King Henry V, King of England

  A former wild prince grown into a devout, eloquent, ruthless and charismatic war leader.

• Chorus, narrator

  Speaks the Prologue, the act openings and the Epilogue, asking the audience to imagine what the stage cannot show.

• Archbishop of Canterbury, churchman

  Lays out the legal case for Henry's claim to France.

• The Dauphin, heir of France

  A scornful, boastful prince who mocks Henry's youth.

• Fluellen, Welsh captain

  A pedantic, brave and loyal officer devoted to the discipline of the wars.

• Michael Williams, common soldier

  Challenges the disguised king on the responsibility of kings for their soldiers' souls.

• Pistol, braggart

  A swaggering former tavern companion of Hal's who survives the war in disgrace.

• Mistress Quickly, the Hostess

  Pistol's wife, who describes Falstaff's death.

• Katherine, Princess of France

  Daughter of the French king, whose English lesson and courtship bring comedy and peace.

• Montjoy, French herald

  Carries the French defiance and finally the surrender of the field.

Lessons

• The burden of command

  The night scene shows Henry hearing a soldier argue that a king answers for the souls of men he leads into war. Henry replies that each subject's soul is his own, then feels the weight of rule alone. Shakespeare gives kingship both its grandeur and its cost.

  • What is Williams's argument, and how does Henry answer it?
  • What does Henry say ceremony gives a king?
  • Why does he pray about his father's fault?

• Words that make men brave

  The Harfleur and St. Crispin's Day speeches show leadership by rhetoric: Henry makes common soldiers his brothers and turns fewness into honor. The play invites students to study how speech forms a company.

  • How does Henry answer Westmorland's wish for more men?
  • What does 'band of brothers' promise the soldiers?

• Justice without favor

  Henry sentences the traitors without pity for his friend Scroop and allows Bardolph, an old companion, to be hanged for sacrilege. The play shows a king who has put away the private loyalties of his youth.

  • Why does Scroop's betrayal grieve Henry most?
  • Is the hanging of Bardolph just?

• Victory given to God

  After Agincourt Henry forbids boasting and orders Non nobis and Te Deum. The play presents gratitude and humility as the right response to success in a just cause.

  • Why does Henry insist that God fought for them?
  • How does the Epilogue qualify the triumph?

Context

Henry V (reigned 1413-1422) renewed the Hundred Years' War, took Harfleur in 1415, and defeated a much larger French army at Agincourt on 25 October, St. Crispin's Day, largely through the English longbow and muddy ground. The Treaty of Troyes (1420) made him heir to France and husband of Catherine of Valois, but he died in 1422 and his infant son Henry VI lost the French lands. Shakespeare's play was written as Elizabeth's Earl of Essex led an army to Ireland, which the Chorus to Act V appears to mention.

Composition

Shakespeare drew mainly on Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles (1587) and an older play, The Famous Victories of Henry V. Henry V was written in 1599, printed in a short quarto in 1600, and given in its full form in the First Folio of 1623.

Reception

The play has often been staged and filmed in times of national danger, notably Laurence Olivier's film of 1944, and in more searching productions such as Kenneth Branagh's of 1989. The St. Crispin's Day speech is one of the most quoted speeches on leadership in English.

Comparisons

• the-iliad

  Homer's warriors seek glory and quarrel over honor; Henry gives glory to God and calls his soldiers brothers.

• julius-caesar

  Both plays turn on persuasive public speech, but Antony moves a mob to revenge while Henry moves an army to courage.

• the-art-of-war

  Sun Tzu advises winning without battle; Henry fights outnumbered and wins by morale and position.

• macbeth

  Macbeth seizes a crown by murder and is destroyed; Henry prays to be spared the guilt of his father's usurpation.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The Chorus's speeches before each act and how they ask you to imagine more than the stage shows.
• Henry's charge to the Archbishop in Act 1, Scene 2 to speak truly because lives will be spent on his answer.
• The contrast between the Harfleur speech and Henry's threats to the governor of Harfleur in Act 3, Scene 3.
• The disguised king's argument with Williams, Bates and Court in Act 4, Scene 1, and the soliloquy that follows.
• How Henry responds to victory in Act 4, Scenes 7 and 8.

Key terms and names

Chorus

A narrator figure, from Greek drama, who introduces each act and bridges time and place.

Salic law

A French rule barring inheritance through the female line; the Archbishop argues it does not apply to France.

Agincourt

The battle in northern France on 25 October 1415 in which Henry's smaller army defeated the French.

St. Crispin's Day

The feast of the martyrs Crispin and Crispinian on 25 October, the day of the battle.

Non nobis

Psalm 115, 'Not unto us, O Lord,' which Henry orders sung after the victory.

Ceremony

The outward show of royalty; Henry calls it an idol that cannot give a king the sleep of a laborer.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Why does Henry go to war with France, and what does he demand of the Archbishop before deciding?
2. Comprehension What do Williams and Henry argue about the night before the battle?
3. Comprehension Why does Henry order the French prisoners killed?
4. Interpretation Henry rejected Falstaff in Henry IV and allows Bardolph to hang here. Is he a better king, a harder man, or both?
5. Interpretation Does Henry's answer to Williams settle the question of a king's responsibility for his soldiers?
6. Interpretation How does the Epilogue change the meaning of the victory at Agincourt?
7. Big Question What makes a war just, and who bears responsibility for its deaths?

Faith Connections

• Psalm 115:1 (Scripture)

  "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory." Henry orders this psalm, the Non nobis, sung after Agincourt.

• Ezekiel 18:20 (Scripture)

  The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father. Henry's prayer that God not punish him for his father's usurpation reaches toward this teaching.

• Augustine, City of God XIX.7 (Church Fathers)

  Augustine teaches that the wise man wages just wars with grief at their necessity. Henry's insistence on a lawful claim and his praise of peace reflect this tradition.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Henry claims France lawfully and wages war under God. He leads by speech, discipline and shared danger, and wins against great odds. Yet the play also shows the costs: traitors and friends executed, prisoners killed, a sick army, a ruined France and the loss of everything under his son. Therefore the play argues that even a just and glorious war is a heavy reckoning that only humility before God can rightly bear.

Rhetorical device: anaphora and inclusive address. In the St. Crispin's Day speech Henry repeats the feast's name and moves from 'we few' to 'we band of brothers,' drawing every soldier into a shared future memory.

Debate: Resolved: that Henry V was justified in ordering the killing of the French prisoners.

Memory Work

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers

Every subject’s duty is the King’s; but every subject’s soul is his own

Writing Prompts

Essay: Compare Henry's public speeches with his private soliloquy and prayer in Act 4, Scene 1. Argue what the private Henry adds to our judgment of the public king.

Comparison with Julius Caesar: Antony and Henry V are both great persuaders. Compare the funeral oration with the St. Crispin's Day speech and argue which uses rhetoric for a better end.

Medical Lens

The play records the bodily costs of war: Henry admits his army is much enfeebled by sickness on the march from Harfleur (historically dysentery), Fluellen's description of Bardolph's carbuncled face draws on tavern drinking, and the Hostess's account of Falstaff's death, with fumbling at the sheets, a sharp nose and cold feet, reads like a period description of the signs of approaching death. Nym's view that the king has run bad humours on the knight uses humoral language for heartbreak. The killing of prisoners and Burgundy's speech on a ruined France complete the picture of war's harm.

• Act 2, Scene 1 and Scene 3

  Falstaff falls sick; Nym says the king has run bad humours on him, and the Hostess describes his death.

  Death Dying Fever Infection Humoral Medicine
• Act 3, Scene 6

  Fluellen describes Bardolph's face as all bubukles and whelks just before he is hanged; Henry admits his people are much enfeebled with sickness.

  Alcohol Plague Epidemic
• Act 4, Scenes 6 and 7

  The deaths of York and Suffolk, the slaughter of the boys with the baggage, and the order to kill the prisoners.

  WAR Wounds Death Dying
• Act 5, Scene 2

  Burgundy describes the vineyards, fields and children of France gone wild through war.

  Starvation Nutrition

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Read the Harfleur and St. Crispin's Day speeches aloud and mark each rhetorical move: appeal to honor, to family, to memory, to fellowship.

• Essay

  Is Henry V an ideal Christian king? Weigh his prayers and humility against the threats at Harfleur and the order to kill the prisoners.

• Dialogue

  Write the conversation between Henry and Williams after the glove is revealed, in your own words.

• Fiction

  Write the night before Agincourt from the point of view of the boy who served Falstaff's old companions.

Further Reading

• Henry IV, Part 1, William Shakespeare

• Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, Raphael Holinshed

  Shakespeare's main source.

• Agincourt: The King, the Campaign, the Battle, Juliet Barker

• The Face of Battle, John Keegan

  Includes a classic study of Agincourt.